Sundown Towns

So right now I am reading Lies my Teacher Told Me, an account of all the things that history books typically omit or misrepresent, by James Loewen. I'm only on chapter two, "1493," and I feel like I'm already sprouting constant information that I had been mistaught like so many others, like how Betsy Ross never created the American Flag, Woodrow Wilson did a whole lotta shady shit, and Helen Keller was one of the leading women in the socialist revolution.

I was so excited to get into the discussion of Columbus that I did some research on the internet about James Loewen, and what I found, though it had nothing to do with Columbus, intrigued me nonetheless. Most of what I explored on his weblog is dedicated to discussing his new book, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. After 21 years I had never heard of these towns until now! They are areas where blacks were historically kept out with signs like, "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On You In ___." And some of these towns still exist today! How is this still going on??

Of course one of the first things I did was check the possible sundown towns of New Jersey, and yup - my hometown is one of them. Although it is defined as "surely not" still a sundown town, it is highly possible that it was at one time. In fact, according to Loewen's preliminary research, a former mayor can remember a time when no African Americans were allowed in the city after sunset, except for the barber.

I no longer live in my hometown, but I think it would be incredibly interesting to conduct more research about this.